Reasons Why I Will Never Be a Travel Agent

Have you ever tried to plan the perfect getaway?  On a tight budget?  Making sure it is kid friendly?  And, only a couple of days in length?

Yeah, I stink at it.

It all started with a change of plans.  We had hoped to get away for a weekend of fun in Branson, Missouri over our spring break.  We had a three day weekend when ALL of us would be home.  The closer we got to the weekend, the more practical our plans had to become.  Yes, we needed a break.  We needed to get away as a family but we needed to be very mindful of the budget.

I had a great idea!  I thought we could just stay at a local hotel for a couple of nights.  Our kids love staying in a hotel room.  Add an indoor swimming pool, and they are in heaven.  The plan was off to a great start until Nurse Boy scoped out all of the indoor pools online.  He was not impressed.  He IS the reason we can't afford to travel.  He has expensive taste... but, we have 3 kids and one income.  Go figure.

We decided to head to a small town about an hour away.  I found an indoor pool with a cool water slide for under $100.  I am thrifty like that.  This town also has a fabulous park with a fancy train and old fashion carousel.  We were set. 

Or so we thought...

The first day was rainy and gloomy, but that wasn't a problem when we headed to the INDOOR pool!

As you can see, we were all smiles!

We swam for a whooping 45 minutes, headed out for dinner, and planned to take in a movie in our room before a nice night time swim.

About 10 minutes into the movie, the fire alarm went off in the hotel.  People were filing out the doors.  We quickly left our room, only to discover that a kid had pulled the alarm AND we locked ourselves out of the room.  Good times.  To top it off, they couldn't get the alarm to stop going off.  Because it was so loud, we couldn't finish our movie.  Nurse Boy and the boys headed back to the pool, hoping the noise wasn't as bad there. 

They returned within minutes.  A kid threw up in the pool.  They closed the pool down for the rest of our stay.  YUCK!

By the time the alarm was finally turned off, it was time for bed.  The park was waiting for us in the morning.  (And this OCD mother was NOT going to let anyone swim in that pool the next day... or ever again.)

The next afternoon, we drove through the park and quickly discovered that the train and carousel had not yet opened for the season. 

Seriously, I stink at planning this stuff!  Nothing seemed to work in our favor.  Truth be told, we did enjoy spending time together without our normal distractions.  It wasn't a COMPLETE failure.

Plus, we found one of these at the park:

An old fashion merry go round! 

You never see these anymore.  I am pretty sure I almost lost my life on these things multiple times growing up.  So, we of course stuck our 3 kids on there and spun that bad boy until they screamed, "UNCLE!"

 

This brought back so many memories!  (And, yes, Nurse Boy and I took some turns as well.  I yelled, "UNCLE!" every single time.  Some things never change.)

 

All in all, it was great spending time together.  But, Nurse Boy gets to plan the next vacation.